• New Run SQL Scripts Features in ACS Update

  August 23, 2023 Alex Woodie

  If you’re a fan of the Run SQL Scripts features in IBM i Access Client Solutions, then there’s good news: IBM has adopted several suggestions on how to improve the functionality in the latest release of ACS.

  IBM quietly released ACS version 1.1.9.3 last month, enabling a series of new functions in the popular Java-based utility used by IBM i professionals to interact with the platform, as well as a handful of fixes.

  At the top of the list, according to an IBM Support document on the new release, are enhancements to Run SQL Scripts (RSS), the handy facility that …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 32

  August 7, 2023 Doug Bidwell

  Here is what is new: A new “version” of Access Client Solutions (ACS) is available for download, catch the link in the Guide. (Your “Check for Update” won’t catch it, and you won’t see the version until you get all the way into the ACS Main window, and do the Help/About.) This is an updated version, no change to the ODBC driver. This version of ACS uses the IBM GSKit version 8.0.55.31 with the latest security updates.

  This is important: Prior versions of ACS have security defects. Specifically, Security Bulletin: IBM i Access Client Solutions – Windows Application Package is …

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• Guru: Comparing IFS Directories Using SQL

  June 19, 2023 Mike Larsen

  I use SQL almost every day at my job. It may be just a query in ACS, or it may be embedded SQL in an RPG program. A few days ago, I needed to compare the contents of one IFS directory to another. Combining a few different table functions, I was able to develop a nice solution.

  Note: The code for this article can be downloaded here.

  In this example, I have a directory that has five text files in it. I have a second directory that has three text files in it, and they are the same documents …

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• Entry Servers: IBM i Versus Windows Server, Redux

  April 10, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  No comparison between similar but different things is ever perfect. It is the nature of language, constructed of similes and metaphors, as well as science, which speaks in generalities but craves ever-finer precision. It is no different when trying to compare different system platforms, which we do quite often around here at The Four Hundred and have for three and a half decades.

  The comparison between the Power S1022s running IBM i and a Dell PowerEdge R7515 running Windows Server and SQL Server, which we did last week, needed some refinement, I learned from an intrepid reader who reminded …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 4

  January 23, 2023 Doug Bidwell

  Here are some reminders to start off the IBM i PTF Guide this week.

  First, there are new releases for Access Client Solutions and the ODBC database driver. (See ACS_NAV in the Guide for the links.) The funny bit – funny odd, not funny hilarious – is that version 26 of ACS did not allow companies to create a database source for ODBC, which is serious shortcoming. Now, there is a new version 27 that will let you do it. Here is the updated software:

  Description				   Version
  IBM i Access Client Solutions (1.1.9.1)	   1.1.9.1
  ACS Windows App Pkg English (64bit)	   

  …

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• Guru: String Manipulation Using SQL

  October 24, 2022 Mike Larsen

  Recently, I was working with an employee file where first and last name were concatenated with a comma separator. A requirement of the project was to parse the name and populate a different table where first and last name are separate columns. I won’t address the design of the employee file, but I will show how I completed the request.

  In Figure 1, I use the position string function via SQL to extract the first name.

  

   

   

  Figure 1. Extract first name

   

  In this example, I use the trim, substring, and posstr functions to position to the first …

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• Guru: Regular Expressions, Part 1

  July 25, 2022 Mike Larsen

  In the first part of this series, I will show how to replace characters in a string using SQL and regular expressions. I know I can replace characters using RPG or SQL, and they work great, but there are some cases where I find using regular expressions is a bit easier.

  For the examples I’ll show, I’m using the REGEXP_REPLACE function. REGEXP_REPLACE allows me to search for a particular value within a string and replace it with another value.

  In the first example (Figure 1), I want to search a string that has both letters and digits and I want …

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• Support For Java 7 Ending WAS 8.5 On IBM i

  July 18, 2022 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops that are running the traditional version of WebSphere Application Server 8.5 atop a Java 7 codebase will need to upgrade to Java 8 or risk running out of support from IBM.

  At the end of July, IBM will cease to support WAS Traditional 8.5 running on JDK 7.0/7.1. Customers will need to upgrade their WAS 8.5 environments to JDK 8.0 to maintain support with IBM. IBM currently provides full support for WAS 8.5 and WAS 9.0 running on JDK 8.0. You can read more about this on the Official Support Statement for the IBM WebSphere Application Server …

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• Let’s Celebrate The Diamond Jubilee Of COMMON Europe

  June 13, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Europe is a collection of countries that, over centuries of commerce, cultural exchange, and war have learned to come together and create a community of common interest. And so it is not a surprise at all that COMMON Europe, which is celebrating its 60^th year – it’s Diamond Jubilee – and that is something that very few organizations in the world ever attain.

  And so, as the COMMON Europe Congress gets underway today in Alicante, Spain, we wanted to offer our congratulations and celebrate that longevity and continuity. (If you have a hankering to travel this week, you can …

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• What’s New in IBM i Services and Networking

  May 18, 2022 Alex Woodie

  As expected, IBM delivered a slew of new IBM i services with the delivery of IBM i 7.5 last week, giving IBM i professionals handle new methods for working with various components of the platform. The new releases of the operating system also brings a number of enhancements in the networking stack, which are notable for several reasons.

  The past several new releases and Technology Refreshes (TRs) have brought new IBM i services, which are SQL-based alternatives to traditional ways of accessing things on the platform like IBM i objects, system information, and other components. At this point, IBM has …

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